Great one-offs – Blackburn Rovers, 1993

The early 1990s were when kit manufacturers began to realise that there was an ever-growing market for their wares, and so the releases became more common.

Blackburn Rovers had worn a plain yellow third kit in 1992-93, but not that often – Crystal Palace, Sheffield United and Southampton were opponents which might have been troublesome for a team with a blue-and-white-halved home and red and black stripes away, but they got by with their first-choice shirt on those occasions.

That third shirt wasn’t sold, as far as we know, but the matchworn set was recycled:

The 1992-3 all yellow kit was given to our school and we wore it as our kit in Year 11 and in 6th Form. Not a great look for a Burnley school! @mejs31

In the summer of 1993, it was supplanted by a new yellow version featuring large black panels at the sides.

A somewhat unusual, but nice, design, its only outing would come away to Tottenham Hotspur in the Coca-Cola Cup fourth round on December 1, 1993, a 1-0 loss. Perhaps Blackburn’s away kit wasn’t allowed due to being too close to the black of the officials, but that hadn’t been a problem for their second-round opponents Bournemouth, who of course wear those colours as their first choice.